Tuesday, 29 December 2009

Very soon after Mum died, Kimberly moved back in with us. Both our daughters had a really tough time with their grandmother's death and seeing we'd been making moves towards getting back together, we both thought now would be a good time.

Sarah was stunned to come home from school and see Kimberly sitting on the couch with me. I know that while we've been separated, Sarah was constantly worried about whether she'd done the right thing in telling Kimberly that she saw Linnea and me together - she didn't want to be to blame for destroying the family. I told her that if Kimberly and I got divorced, it would be my fault but it still played on her mind a lot.

We didn't go into details with Susannah, so she was just happy to have both of us back home again.

Our getting back together wasn't as sudden as it probably appeared to a lot of people. Kimberly and I had been getting together regularly since she moved out, just to talk.

We didn't see each other at all, except when we were dropping the kids off, for a few months and it was so awkward when we first started meeting up. I don't think either of us knew what to say.

But we kept trying and started laying down some ideas of what would have to happen for us to get back together. All Kimberly wanted was for me to stop seeing Linnea. I hadn't seen her at all since Kimberly left, so that was already done.

Kimberly seemed a little surprised that I thought the main problem with us was that we didn't talk. I guess that sort of proves my point but that's something we both agreed to work on. It wouldn't do us any good to get back together and fall back on old habits.

While we were separated, Kimberly lost her job. The salon she worked at was sold and the new owners decided to get all new staff. Kimberly was home and unemployed for a little while, hoping to find another hairdressing job. Eventually, she got sick of bird watching all day and took a job in catering instead.

Right now, she's working really late nights so we don't get to see her quite as often as we'd like. She's often sleeping when we're awake. It's okay when I'm at work, but on my days off, the house is so quiet with Kimberly in bed and the girls at school. That's when I start to really miss Mum.

Even with Kimberly's late hours, the change in Susannah has been amazing. She's so much happier with the family all back together again. I think we all are.

Only recently, at least to my knowledge, Sarah has been showing an interest in boys. One boy in particular.

Ethan Novak is over at our house almost constantly. I don't mind that. I think Sarah is old enough to start thinking about dating now and Ethan seems like a nice kid.

I'm a little worried about Sarah's increased obsession with her appearance though, most specifically her nose. It never seemed to bother her up until this year and I really hope this isn't about her wanting to be more appealing to boys.

I was so shocked when Sarah came to Kimberly and me and asked if she could get a nose job. I should have tried to stay calm but I couldn't help it. It seems so completely unnecessary to me and she's only 14!

So Sarah turned to Kimberly and started trying to get her on her side, probably knowing full well Kimberly wouldn't be as opposed to it as I was. It's one of Kimberly's weak spots. Sarah and Susannah both know that if they want something, it's easier to ask her than to ask me.

So of course, Sarah won Kimberly over pretty quickly and looked at me as if to say, "what's the big deal?" Surgery on your face, that's the big deal!

Kimberly and I talked it over some more after Sarah went to bed and she ended up talking me into it! Ugh, I'm so angry about agreeing to it. I really think she's too young but she's so obsessed with her nose right now. Maybe it's just better to let her get it "fixed".

So I'm still reluctant. Very. To hear Kimberly and Sarah talk about it, you'd think it was going to be life-changing.

Sarah can't wait. I don't know what she's more excited about - the nose job or the week off she's getting from school.

Sarah's surgery went well. She still looks like Sarah, which I have to admit, I was worried about. As soon as all her bruising went down and she had her bandages off, she wanted to invite Ethan over.

There's definitely a little spark there between them, I think. It's sweet.

They tend to go outside a bit more now, just to get away from Susannah (and Kimberly and me, I'm guessing!) I'm keeping a very close eye on them! Sarah's only 14 but from working at a high school for so longer, I know kids younger than her have got themselves into situations they can't really handle. I don't want that to be my daughter, so I'll be spying for a little while longer!Sarah's surgery - comparison pics:

Before...

and after...That's a lot better, huh? I didn't change anything else, I just bumped her nose out a bit. Well, a lot. I bumped it out as far as the slider would let me and it still looked a little short so I accepted it and then did it again and bumped it out a little more.

Here are Sarah's biological parents, in profile...

I don't know...they both have pretty terrible noses and neither really looks exactly like Sarah's. Just to clarify, the only thing I did to Sarah's nose was lengthen it. The actual shape was not changed at all.

And here are Sarah's parents front on, just for fun.

Sarah's a pretty decent mix of both parents, I think. And I love that she's got a recessive blonde gene. That'll make any kids she has a little bit more interesting than you normally get with adopted Sims.

I've mentioned before that while Betsy and Kimberly were separated, I dropped in on them once a season, took them on a date or outing, just to see how their wants were spinning. Well...they wanted to get back together - that much was clear!

I know I said I was waiting until 18 for any future plastic surgery but I just couldn't stand looking at Sarah's lack of nose any more! If it was just unattractive it would be one thing but it was barely human looking and it bothered me! I'm much happier with Sarah now.

I wasn't going to let Sarah and Ethan go steady but she had the want for her first kiss, then she wanted to go steady with Ethan, so who am I to say no? LOL.

I think Sarah's new nose looks great! It's not a huge difference so that she still looks like herself, but it's enough of a difference that it actually looks like a normal nose now. ;) I agree with Mao that Sarah got her father's nose, the female versions do tend to be a bit smaller and so it would make sense in Sarah's case.

I love Sarah's new nose. I'm glad she was able to get it. If it were me I would have fixed it sooner. LOL And now she has a little boy friend how cute. But don't move too fast. Just stick with kissing. LOL

Oh, don't know if you know about this mod over at MTS, Carla. But it give teens adult wants, which allows them to roll the woohoo want. I got so sick of gussing for my sims that I installed it. It's working wonderfully for me and it's taken out the guess work as well. If you want the link let me know, I'll find it for you.

A nose job at 14! Wow, that's soon, but her new nowe is much much beter!It's nice to see the family back together again. They look happy together, and I think this really was a weight off Sarah's shoulders!

Love the new nose - no, I LOVE it. Glad you finally changed it. hahhaaha. But won't her kids have a chance at inheriting her old/real nose? LOL! Maybe her parents or her future spouse's genes will kick in and you won't have to worry about it. I'm looking forward to seeing her future generation offspring, just because of her nose now! LOL!

Mao, that does make sense. Her nose would probably be a lot nicer if she had her mum's, considering hers isn't really freakish looking.

I was trying to ride out Sarah's nose, just to see if it improved. What a waste of time that was, LOL!

There's another conflict coming up for Kimberly and Betsy, unfortunately, but hopefully they've learnt from their mistakes and will handle the next one much better.

Apple Valley, no, not all. None besides Sarah, actually! Sarah is the result of two TSR challenge Sims who had a baby without my permission, so I put her up for adoption as an infant. Yeah...probably not going to do that again. Extra character files, along with possibly fug children! I'm learning a lot doing Sullivan and much of is stuff I should have learnt years ago!

Shana, exactly, that was what I was going for. She's not a great beauty but that's fine, for any of my Sims, as long as they look like someone who could actually be found in the real world! LOL.

Riverdale, normally, I would have fixed it sooner too! I did Claudia, Victoria, Calvin and Troy as children but honestly, none of them were so dire!

Ethan and Sarah will definitely stick with kissing for now, especially with Betsy watching them. I imagine it would be rather intimidating dating the principal's daughter, and for someone as shy as Ethan, even more so.

And I didn't know about that mod but I'm so glad you mentioned it! I went over thinking it would be something new but I found it by searching and saw it had been up since 2007! How did I not know about it until now?! It looks great - I'm excited to try it out!

Lunar, yes, Sarah's old nose really does look like those alien noses you get with the default EA PT, didn't it?

Tanja, 14 is probably the very minimum age I'd allow plastic surgery for storytelling purposes (not in real life, I hasten to add!) For future weird looking kids, I'll probably take a page out of Laura's book and age them up to adult, just to make sure they look okay.

Simmington, I'm glad I changed it and I think Sarah is too! ;) But the plastic surgery in Sullivan is so amazing that it changes your very DNA. ;) I'm going to make it genetic in SimPE today, as I almost always do. I've done it for everyone except Calvin Clarke - I've known he was gay much longer than you guys and knew he wouldn't be having biological children anyway.

Yay, I'm glad to see Betsy and Kimberly giving it another try. I hope they can work things out this time.

Sarah's nose job looks great! I don't normally agree with surgery either, but in her case, if she were my child in RL, I probably wouldn't consider it elective, lol!

But Susannah is adorable!

LOL that surgery in Sullivan changes the DNA! Too funny :) So far in my hood, Dallas is the only one who's had surgery as far as storyline goes. Plenty of my townies have had surgery before being introduced to the storyline, and I'd make that genetic, but Dallas still has his genetic alien nose, so it should be fun to see how that turns out, lol!

But then, I also don't usually let you guys know when my born-in-game kids have surgery behind the scenes (there have been three or four cases so far). Because that I do make genetic ;)

Laura, ah, see I assumed you'd made Dallas's nose genetic. Well, that will be interesting then!

We'll see about Betsy and Kimberly but I hope they're okay now. They're 3 bolts/high 2 bolts (it seems to jump around a bit, for reasons I can't figure out) but I think some of their interests are poorly aligned, so there's bound to be some arguing with them, I think. Plus, Betsy is as much of a bitch as Anna is - being her clone and all. ;)

Maisie, I like Sarah now. I'm so shallow, I hardly felt like doing anything with her, storyline wise, with that weird nose! LOL.

And yup, kind of like the pastor's daughter, although at least most boys wouldn't have to see their pastors every day!

Cissie, Betsy is tall and Kimberly is short! I decided Joseph was tall, so both of his daughters took after him. I've got Betsy at 1.02 and Kimberly is at 0.97. Betsy's one of the few women I set above 1.0 - Anna and Abigail are also taller and Cordy is the tallest of them all.

I had to go and Google some pictures of Karen Carpenter (I knew who she was but her face wasn't coming to my mind straight away!) and compare them to Sarah and you're right! I can definitely see a resemblance there. :)